Concert Companion
Concert Companion
Podcast Description
Sarasota Orchestra's Concert Companion connects classical music fans with seven Orchestra musicians who share personal previews of the programs in this season’s Masterworks series. By giving listeners a little something extra to take along to the performance, the Concert Companion aims to deepen patrons’ appreciation of the works they’ll enjoy live in the concert hall. You're invited to join each enriching adventure with an Orchestra musician as your friendly guide. Episodes are released one month prior to each Masterworks program.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores a variety of themes including musician anecdotes, performance preparation, and concert previews, with episodes focusing on specific concerts like Heroic Spirit featuring Beethoven and Shostakovich, Ravel's Bolero with active listening tips, and discussions of human perseverance in Beethoven's Seventh linked to historical narratives.
Sarasota Orchestra’s Concert Companion connects classical music fans with Orchestra musicians who share personal previews of concert programs coming up this season. By giving listeners a little something extra to take along to the performance, the Concert Companion aims to deepen patrons’ appreciation of the works they’ll enjoy live in the concert hall. You’re invited to join each enriching adventure with an Orchestra musician as your friendly guide.
Episode Overview:
Cue a new Sarasota Orchestra Masterworks season! In this episode of the Concert Companion, we welcome Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero back to the podcast to preview our upcoming Beethoven & Prokofiev program. Tune in as Giancarlo shares historical (and highly amusing) anecdotes about our first Masterworks concerto of the season: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, performed by a longtime collaborator of Giancarlo’s, the legendary violinist Gil Shaham. The conversation then turns to Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, with a deeply moving story from Giancarlo’s own history with the work and a reminder to listeners that Prokofiev’s Fifth remains a timeless, hopeful hymn to the best of humanity and the human spirit.
About the Concert:
Sarasota Orchestra performs Masterworks: Beethoven & Prokofiev on November 7-8, 2026 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, with Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero conducting and featuring Gil Shaham in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Feel the profound emotional impact of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, written as the smoke of World War II began to clear. Opening with Lera Auerbach’s gripping musical retelling of the myth of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun, this concert reaches for the heights of human ambition. Tickets are available at SarasotaOrchestra.org.
Music in This Episode:
Violin Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Yaniv Dinur, conductor
Sarasota Orchestra
Recorded live at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, February 2022
Symphony No. 5 by Sergey Prokofiev
Anu Tali, conductor
Sarasota Orchestra
Recorded live at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, January 2019
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